I'd recommend anybody to give Your Name a chance just for the amazing art direction and animation. This movie is definitely top 3 anime visuals I've seen along with Spirited Away and Akira. However just like these two movies, the story and characters lacks depth, the plot isn't very well explained and the characters come off as anime stereotypes.
Both Taki and Mitsuha are bored of their everyday lifes and wish for a more exciting life... And one day it magically happens they both wake up having their bodies swapped without having any connection to each other and get to experience life from the opposite gender point of view. At this point the concept is nothing strange or new so it doesn't need any explaining because there are lots of body swapping stories in other media most of which are not taken very seriously especially if its from male to female swapping perspectives and when they are taken seriously it's usually the same old lesson that being a Man or Woman is not as easy or as fun as you'd thought it was. Which is also somewhat the case in Your Name showing how Japan is still a very traditional society with clear gender roles along with their own expectations and struggles and also the differences of living in a small town and in a big city.
What keeps the story interesting is how Taki and Mitsuha slowly start to like and trust each other without ever meeting in person. They get to share their boring life's, their friends and families and even see and touch their private body parts without permission it's really cute and funny! The problem starts with the second act, the story decides to ignore it's simple premise and goes heavy into time travel, an upcoming disaster, their past getting explained for no reason, Mitsuhas father being the bad guy for losing a loved one from the past it's just too much going on here and loses the focus of the initial simple story the movie had. Worst of all, the characters just go along with everything that's happening they could've communicated with each other right from the start but they don't until it's no longer possible, for a while... It's never explained how or why they can see each other the one moment and then the other they can't and outright forget each others names which is what the whole movie is about, remembering Your Name.
I would like to go on and rant about how the plot doesn't make any sense but honestly if you turn off your brain and just accept the movie for what it is you'll have a good time with it. What saved the movie for me was it's ending. Usually, movies with so many unanswered questions like Your Name end just like that with no satisfying explanation but I really liked the ending even if nothing makes sense anymore. I didn't like the soundtrack it was very distracting in my opinion but like I said the real magic here are the visuals and I recommend it just for that and the silly but fine ending.
